Philippines may turn to Thailand for rice

The Philippines will consider buying rice from any foreign rice
suppliers, including Thailand, under agreements with the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), an official from the National Food Authority (NFA) has said.

NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez said the rice supply agreement between
Manila and Bangkok expired last year, so if Thailand wants to export
rice to the Philippines, the agreement must be renewed.

Previously, Thailand proposed to sell rice at a great loss to support
Thai farmers who participated in their Government’s rice pledging
scheme.

In November last year, the Vietnam Food
Association (VFA) won a contract to supply 500,000 tonnes of rice at
462.25 USD per tonne to the Philippines, while Thailand’s price is 475
USD per tonne.

Estoperez said that Thailand has since
offered rice to the Philippines at 462 USD per tonne, 25 cents less
than Vietnam, but the Philippines rejected the offer as it cannot
violate WTO and ASEAN rules.

The United Nations Food
and Agriculture Orga nisation (FAO) has forecast that the Philippines’
rice import will rise 20 percent to 1.2 million tonnes this year due to
damage caused by super typhoon Haiyan in November last year.-VNA